"El," she whispered and he turned to look at her questioningly. Then Olivia took a step towards him and pressed a kiss on his cheek."Thank you."
A smile brightened Elliot's face as he wrapped his arms around her, closed his eyes, and pressed his lips against her ear.
"Always."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They returned to the cottage almost at the same time as Fin and Munch, who were carrying as many branches and pieces of wood in their arms as possible. The dusk was already turning into darkness, but they could still observe the environment and Fin grinned when he saw Olivia and Elliot returning from the direction of the brook.
"Was it a hot, relaxing bubble bath?" He chaffed, but when he saw Olivia's expression, his smile faded. "What's wrong?" He frowned. Olivia swallowed and words got stuck in her throat.
"I… uh…" She glanced at Elliot.
"I can tell you that Cassidy deserved his soon-to-be black eye," he continued. Fin and Munch's eyebrows rose.
"What happened?"
Olivia turned her gaze to the ground and bit her lip. "I don't want to talk about it now."
Fin and Munch looked at each other worried, but let it be. They knew their friend well enough so they knew that if Olivia didn't want to talk about something, it was completely pointless to even try. Elliot glanced at his partner, who looked clearly embarrassed.
"I wonder if Brown's traps really work? I wouldn't like to be needy, but I could definitely eat more than half a jar of dry meat once a day," he grimaced and put his hands on his stomach. "I must say I was expecting a little better food from this trip."
Olivia was grateful that Elliot had changed the subject and she gave a faint laugh.
"Yeah, next time before I go on a trip I'm going to make sure that the "free food" doesn't mean I'll have to hunt it myself," Fin huffed and then started to walk towards the cottage. When they arrived at the door, Olivia looked at it nervously and Elliot wrapped his arms encouragingly around her shoulders.
"You okay?" He asked. Olivia nodded faintly.
"Yeah, I just… The cottage is pretty small. But that's just Brian, right? He doesn't want to hurt me."
Elliot frowned, but thought it was the best to keep his opinion to himself, at least for now. Instead, he leaned closer to her ear and said in a low voice:
"I promise to keep an eye on him. And if he touches you with just his little finger… I wouldn't mind if he had another black eye tomorrow."
Olivia snorted. "I bet you wouldn't." Then she took a deep breath and opened the door. She immediately faced Cassidy, who was sitting on the bed, and who got up and limped a few steps towards her. Olivia backed beside Elliot, who took a step forward, partially covering Olivia with his body. Cassidy stopped, a desperate look in his eyes.
"Liv, I'm sorry. I don't know what was wrong with me… I… I wasn't myself," he sputtered and his eyes filled with tears. Olivia looked at him quietly for a moment, but then sighed and nodded towards the door.
"Let's talk outside."
Cassidy's eyes widened and he nodded gratefully. Elliot turned to look at her surprised, and she squeezed his arm gently.
"I'll be fine," she smiled quickly to confirm her words and he nodded almost imperceptibly, but they had a wordless conversation with their eyes:
"But I'll have your back?"
"You'll definitely have my back."
Then Olivia turned on her heels and stepped out the door. Cassidy started to limp to follow her, but Elliot grabbed his arm and looked at him threateningly with his blue eyes.
"If you fold just a single hair in her head, that broken leg will be no longer your biggest concern," he growled. "You understand?"
Cassidy nodded and Elliot let him go. Then he continued to limp out. Elliot looked after him and clenched his fists as Cassidy limped over to Olivia. He felt Fin and Munch behind him as they looked out the door over his shoulders.
"What the hell has he done?" Fin asked in a low voice and Elliot felt the warmth inside him. Fin didn't even know what had happened, but he was angry at the mere assumption that someone had hurt Olivia. Elliot shook his head.
"Something that makes me want to broke his fingers one by one."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Olivia watched as Cassidy limped slowly towards her, and she gulped as she felt her anxiety grow with his every step. Calm down, she thought, Elliot, Fin and Munch are standing over there. He won't have time to do anything to you until El knocks him out. Besides, he's just Brian, your boyfriend. You know him, don't you? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Or do you? He was harassing you sexually, and God knows what he would have done if El hadn't intervened.
Then Cassidy stopped in front of her. His gaze was so miserable that tears welled in Olivia's eyes, but she quickly blinked them away.
"Why?" She asked quietly. "Why did you do that?"
"I don't know", Cassidy replied. "I really don't. I… I looked at you as you slept against Elliot and you looked so calm... You looked as if you had found peace after all these years. I… I have never seen you like that."
Olivia swallowed because Cassidy's words hit her deeply. When she had leaned on Elliot and listened to his calm breath next to the warmly glowing fireplace, she had felt so calm and whole that she wasn't sure if she had ever felt that way before. Even though they had been involved in a plane crash, barely survived, and were stuck in the middle of the wilderness, she had felt at that moment like she wanted to be nowhere else. However, she wasn't going to reveal that to Cassidy, so she shrugged and replied: "Well, I haven't slept for two nights."
"When I watched you, I felt more and more angry. To be honest, it hasn't been very nice to watch from the side when my girlfriend seemed to have lost everything after her friend was missing. I almost died, but it felt like it didn't matter to you."
Olivia lowered her eyes to the ground and pursed her lips. She had to admit that Cassidy wasn't completely wrong. But what did it say about her? What did it say about them, Cassidy and her?
"I'm sorry," she replied. "I didn't want to make you feel that way. I was just so worried about Elliot that I had no energy to anything else. He means a world to me, I suppose you know that."
"Yeah, I think I've realized it in the last few days," Cassidy's voice was suddenly frustrated and Olivia felt the anxiety grow inside her. "Anyway, this anger made me follow you to the brook. When I saw you there…" Olivia shuddered. "I realized I didn't want to lose you. My feelings were on the edge already before you asked Elliot, and when you did, something snapped in my head. I couldn't… I couldn't control myself, not until Elliot punched me… Completely justified," he added. "After that I realized what I had done. You can't believe how sorry I am… I'm sorry," he fell silent with tears in his eyes. Olivia looked at him and took a deep breath before opening her mouth.
"You've worked with SVU," she started. "You know exactly what's wrong and yet you do it?"
"I…" Cassidy started but Olivia silenced him by raising her hand.
"Don't. It is already horrible enough if a stranger sexually harasses you, but if the harasser is your own boyfriend…" She fell silent and tears welled in her eyes. Everyone will betray you eventually. Even the ones you love. She shook her mother's voice from her head and continued: "Elliot makes me feel calm because I trust him completely. He has been my partner over 10 years…"
"And don't you trust me then?" Cassidy suddenly asked irritably and anger flared up inside Olivia.
"I trusted you, Brian, but you betrayed me!" She snapped.
"But before that, did you trust me the same way you trusted Elliot?" Cassidy demanded the answer. Olivia fell silent, pursed her lips, and then turned her gaze to the ground.
"No," she replied quietly, but added quickly: "But it wasn't your fault, I just don't trust anyone the same way I trust him."
Cassidy's eyes flashed dangerously and he clenched his fists. Olivia instinctively backed away a couple of steps.
"What happens next?" Cassidy asked in a low voice and she sighed deeply.
"I think you know."
Cassidy's expression changed in a few seconds from insecurity to shock and then to the mixed anger and disappointment. He stared at Olivia, who stepped back a few steps and unintentionally glanced at Elliot, who was still standing at the cottage door. Cassidy turned to look in the direction of her gaze and then turned his gaze back to her.
"It's because of him, isn't it? Your Elliot."
"No," Olivia replied. That wasn't completely true, but Elliot wasn't the main reason Olivia was breaking up with Cassidy. It was because she had been far too much involved in sexual offenses. Firstly, she was the result of it herself, and she had promised herself she would never stay in a violent relationship, whatever the situation was. Cassidy had broken her trust and hurt her, and even if he vowed he wasn't himself at the time, Olivia couldn't be sure the same thing didn't happen again. "It's because of you, Brian."
Then she started to a walk towards the cottage. After taking a few steps, she turned and looked deep into Cassidy's eyes with her brown eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered and then continued walking. Cassidy stood in the snow and as tears rolled down his cheeks, he clenched his fists.
